IT Job Seekers: Resume Liars

IT hiring managers report catching more instances of lying than the national average, making IT the third worst industry for dishonest resumes, according to a CareerBuilder report.

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If you're in the market for a new job, a good first impression starts with your resume. But according to a new survey, many job candidates -- especially in IT -- tend not to tell the truth.

Harris Poll and CareerBuilder surveyed more than 2,188 hiring managers nationwide and found that lying on resumes is surprisingly common. More than half (58%) said they have spotted lies, while one-third said that fibbing has increased since the recession.

IT hiring managers, however, reported catching more instances of lying (63%) than the national average, which earns tech candidates the No. 3 spot as the most-dishonest job seekers. IT was trumped only by the leisure and hospitality industry (71%) and financial services (73%). The top five also included healthcare (63%) and retail (59%).

Matt Rivera, VP of marketing at IT staffing firm Yoh, said that one reason IT candidates may feel pressure to embellish the truth is to make it past a company's applicant tracking system (ATS). "There's this perception that their resumes will be vetted by a computer, so if they don't list the keywords and skills that the company is looking for, they may not get a call," he said in an interview.

A candidate's skill set, in fact, was the most embellished part of a resume (57%), the report found. Responsibilities (55%), dates of employment (42%), job titles (34%), academic degrees (33%), the companies they worked for (26%), and accolades and awards (18%) were among the other top misrepresentations.

While these fibs might get you past an ATS -- which are most common at large companies, Rivera noted -- beware: Employers are taking more time to review individual resumes, the survey found. Forty-two percent of hiring managers said they spend more than two minutes reviewing each resume, up from 33% in December.

When employers do find the inevitable half-truth, they're split on how to handle it. Slightly more than half (51%) said they would automatically dismiss a candidate if they caught a lie on their resume, while 40% said it would depend on what that candidate lied about. Just 7% of employers said they would be willing to overlook a lie if they liked the candidate.

"You need to remember that you're starting a relationship with the employer and it's always good to start it off on honest footing," Rivera said. "Having any embellishments on your resume will put doubt in their mind from the very beginning. You don't want them thinking that there might be other things you're lying about or not telling them."

Rosemary Haefner, VP of HR at CareerBuilder, warned that lying on your resume compromises any trust you may have with a hiring manager. "Trust is very important in professional relationships, and by lying on your resume you breach that trust from the very outset," she said in a statement.

Instead, focus on tangible examples from your actual experiences, she advised. "Your resume doesn't necessarily have to be the perfect fit for an organization, but it needs to be relevant and accurate."

Kristin Burnham currently serves as InformationWeek.com's Senior Editor, covering social media, social business, IT leadership and IT careers. Prior to joining InformationWeek in July 2013, she served in a number of roles at CIO magazine and CIO.com, most recently as senior ... View Full Bio

The skillset is vital. Both interpersonally and technically. Especially with IT or technical related careers. There are recruiters who may be too young in the field to understand even technical terms. Or their may be senior level recruiters who may not be up to date with the models of today. Either way, the best recruiters are those that care and understand the candidate. Without the right training, skills this is where problems occur.

You're likely to get less embellishment of the truth if the skills requirements are more targeted. For example, if you want someone with SQL Server, and you dont use Oracle or MySQL. Then dont list those 2 as a required skill, but do list SQL and mention that Oracle is acceptable if willing to take on SQLServer and you know SQL.

If you list the kitchen sink, then dont expect the truth, those people dont exist. I ignore any posting that lists a kitchen sink of skills, to me they're simply fishing for people and hoping to get lucky and there is no actual job behind that posting.

i do look at the tech listed, For example, I'm working with SQL Server 2012, so I have little interest in working with SQL Server 2005 even though I know it, so if you're listing that as a skill, then it's likely you wont get experienced people, after all, which software engineer in their right mind would step backwards like that and effectively render themselves obsolete after a year or two.

This means that companies that fail to keep up with technology will have problems finding skilled people, and as a result invite lies on resumes from people that dont have skills in the listed tech, but want a foot in the door.

I'm not sure this is about age. I have interviewed with 20-something recruiters who asked the right questions and 20-something recruiters who asked the wrong questions. The best HR people I have worked with vary in age from 20's to 50's -- skill shows up in each age group. The larger question is whether the initial screen process and then the first round interview processes are on the money or not, right? You could have an older HR person carrying out a bad process and it would still frustrate job seekers.

@rrdonovan I ran into that same thing on an interview. I'm talking to a very nice 20-something HR person on this interview but I remember thinking "How in the heck is this person even qualified to interview me?". I knew the interview was going nowhere when she asked "How do you feel about testing?". The look on my face must have said "Huh? Are you serious?". I think I actually answered that testing was exercise in risk mgmt, what you do depends on what application is you need to test. She had this blank look showing she had no idea what I was talking about.

Turned out the job was to lead some 25 person team with one of those testing methodologies in use today, which wasn't a match for me anyway. But I remembered leaving wondering what the point was of talking to her in first place. Other than verifying I was breathing, not exactly sure what she was qualified to vet. She hadn't even been alive long enough to even understand people yet, that isn't a skill taught in school.

@jagibbons you make a good point -- the difference between an embellishment you can overlook and one you can't ignore could boil down to a candidate's experience. Someone inexperienced might not yet have a good understanding of the demands of the job, while embellishments in a more experienced candidate's resume could be a reflection of poor character.

According Stephen M. R. Covey in The Speed of Trust, trust is based on two factors, character and competence. Misrepresentation on a resume is a sign of weakness in both areas. It is one thing for a newcomer to the job market to over-estimate his or her skillset. With time and maturity, self-awareness grows. It is another thing for a candidate to willfully misrepresent themselves. For me as a hiring manager, that is a clear signal to end the interview and look for a better candidate.

What's the harm in a few embellishments if you feel it will get you to an interview or even just a return phone call?

@Phillyrivera Excellent point regarding the role desperation plays in all of this and I do agree that "desperate times call for desperate measures" in a very real sense.

And ironically it leads back to businesses with their uninformed and often unrealistic expectations. I love your recount of the needed five years experience for a technology and/or skill that has only been out a couple of years. Come on really ? Someone was actually paid to list such foolishness ? You bet.

H.R. Two letters that make many loose sleep for one reason or another.

So, I wonder, who do you think is the one to blame here, the employees, or the employers, or unemployment?

That is an interesting question Susan and thank you for asking .....

IMO this issue of embellishment is a combination of all three factors, many employees have learned dubious traits in school and these traits carry over into the work lives. People who have lied and cheated throughout their formative years simply continue to do so into adulthood. So there is that built in percentage of embellishment in resumes that will always be there because there are many people who have lied and cheated their way to where they are.

But then you add another aspect to it, the recent Great Depression ( and yes that is what it really was) that most Americans experienced as our economy burned to the ground taking the international community with us for the most part added a element of desperation to the equation.

So it was analogous to offering a drink to someone who has a drinking problem when it comes to the increase in resume embellishment. And of course businesses have always for the most part not performed their due diligence when it come to verifying skills listed unless of course you are in a group they want to keep out anyway in which case they have some test for you to pass. It really is ludicrous.

So they (business) are not without blame going from one extreme to the other - as usual.

So as you can see the issue is interwoven between the three and there are probably more than just three - but for the sake of discussion, those are good enough.

Hi Susan ! I certainly appreciate your brilliant perspective on "human nauture" and thinking about it I see the validity of your argument. I must be working under the old philosophy of the individual dermines their destiny - maybe it is just my own personal philosphy but it really does not apply in the world we live in today.

Society does determine what is considered "human nature" because it certainly out weights the individual in most cases. This is an unfortunate outgrowth of the World we have created for better of worse.

And when I say, "we" I use the term loosely because the insightful among us understand that society and for a major part reality is determined by a small percentage.

I had not thought of "human nature" to this extent, so I thank you for enlighting me to a truth most of us miss. You are right and I couldn't agree more. I see and thank you ! ; )

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